How to Raise Money for Importation Business

Importation Business.

Raising money for any form of business might be a little bit challenging. I know this because I have been there before. It’s not a very good feeling to know a lot about a particular business or have a great idea but not being able to execute it due to lack of fund.

Overtime it has been established that information is all you need to make money, sometimes however, some information are incomplete, which makes it a little bit difficult to make money from such information.

Here on importation wealth, we have written several articles on how to make money from importation, we’ve shared different ideas on how to sell your goods, and we’ve analyzed different markets and fast selling goods.

Today’s post will be a little bit different from what we’ve been doing in the time past. I would give you ideas on how to raise money for your business; I tagged the post with “importation business” because that’s what we focus on here. It should however be noted that the ideas in this post can be used to raise money for any other business.

Personal Savings

This is one of the easiest ways of raising money for your business. The investment capital might be a little bit small because it’s your savings, but you don’t have to worry about failing or losing your capital because it’s your money and you’re not indebted to anybody.

If the business proper or fail, you don’t have to explain your success or predicament to anybody because you don’t owe anybody.

For newbies, I have always advised that they invest their personal savings in their first business. It also serves as motivation because you wouldn’t want your hard earned money to go down the drain, which means you would do your best to make sure the business prosper at maximum profit.

So, if you’ve known about the importation business for a while, but you’re limited by the lack of fund. It’s time you consider saving some personal funds in other to bring your knowledge of the business to practice.

You don’t have to accumulate huge funds before commencing the business. A personal savings of #10,000 is a good start to test your knowledge. You should be able to raise this within a month or two provided you take it as a priority.

I would later in this post talk about importance of investing your personal savings for your first attempt.

Family

A larger percentage of us might not have the luxury of family support. But if you fall into the category of those that enjoy the support of family members. You should consider discussing your business ideas with them, and hopefully they would be willing to help out in one way or the other.

To make this work, you would have to make a list of your family members or relative and put each of them into three categories based on how much you know they can afford. You might create a group of those that can afford #1000-#5000, another group for those that can afford #5000-#10000, and group of those that can afford more than #10,000

You would normally focus on those that can afford above #5000, you will have to take some time and visit them in person, and explain your business ideas to them in details. Give them a time frame for when you need the money (A month or two is appropriate), Call them and send text messages on weekly basis to remind them of your request.

To those in the group of #1,000 – #5,000 You can send a text once and if they are willing to help, they would get in touch when they have the money.

When raising funds for business, no amount is small or too big, so accept all donations with appreciation, and don’t forget to carry your benefactors along as you make progress with your business.

The benefits of raising money through family members is almost similar to that of personal savings, the difference being that you get to raise a larger capital compared to your personal savings.

Loan

PS: Don’t consider getting a loan for importation if this is your first attempt!

This method is strictly for veterans in the business, and it is not advisable for newbies.

There are various ways of acquiring loans for your business, you choice depends on how huge the amount of money you are willing to borrow.

If it’s not a huge amount of money, you might consider the borrowing from your friends or family members. Getting an unofficial loan (from friends, family cooperative societies) might be a good choice if you don’t have something tangible that can be used for collateral.

If you’re established already and you require a huge sum of money to move your business to the next level, you might consider writing a business proposal and submit the loan application and business proposals to commercial banks around you.

It should be noted that most commercial bank requires that your company is registered with the corporate affairs commission before a loan request can be granted.

Business Partner

Provided you know a lot about the importation business and you’re short on funds to put your knowledge to practice, you might want to reach out to some of your friends, colleagues or family members that would be willing to invest in your business or become a partner with you.

The idea is to make them interested in the business, “sell” the business idea to them such that they would be willing to join you in making your business idea come into reality.

I have in time past time partner with various people from different part of the country, most of them are older and some are within my age range. As a potential business individual, you must be able to market your idea such that others would be willing to join you in the business.

It’s very easy to get a genuine business partner. You might want to run the idea by your colleagues at school or work, or by your friends. You might also make a post on social media and target them at your friends only.

If you’re opting for this method of raising money, you should do your best to make sure your potential business partner understand what he/she is getting into. Most people would not understand the basis of the business before jumping right in, and when the money is not coming in as fast as they expect, they would start giving you problem. So don’t be in a hurry to get a partner without making understand the pros and cons of the business.

Make them understand that it’s very much possible to fail just like any other business.

Down Payment

I made mention of personal savings in the initial part of this post. If you’ve tried the business with your little personal savings, then you can consider raising money for your business to large scale by asking for down payment from buyers.

Getting buyers that would make down payment for items they are yet to see requires some level of trust, which makes it difficult to get buyers in the first instance. You might want to start from old time friends and family members.

You just have to put the words out there and tell people about the type of business you’re into.

Extra caution should be taken when you’re raising money through down payment because it might be worrisome if things should go wrong along the line.

Premium Class

Knowledge is of great value in this society of ours. So if you know more about the importation business and you’ve tried it with success yourself. You might gather evidences that would support your claim of making money from the business and organize a premium class on importation business, you might as well write a comprehensive guide on how to import goods and make money from the business.

You can charge clients some money and use the profit from the E-Book or Premium guide for the business.

In conclusion, it’s very important to take note that nothing good comes easy, the successful people in the world are those that are resilient enough to go extra mile to make their dreams come true.

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About Author

Wale Shonibare

Since I was a 22-year-old undergraduate in University, I've run a home-based business importing products from China and generating millions of Naira on a yearly basis. Since then, I've made China and its culture not only a key part of my business but also of my personal life.

Comments

Dear Wale.
I’m not too sure I’ve herd about you before. I was doing some research on Google Alerts when your link shows up and I clicked to see what you’ve got. Honestly speaking after reading some of your articles on mini importation business, I have no doubt in my mind that you are an authority in this business.

I have done some mini importation business myself. I imported wrist watches from Aliexpress and sold it for good profit, but that was in 2014. I have received some updated information from other Coaches like Pat Ogidi which was very helpful.
However, I have been off the radar of IM for sometimes due to my missionary activities. Now I’m ready to venture into it again to raise money for my family and missionary work.
I will definitely love to get in touch with you regularly for more insight.